American Historical Ephemera & Early Photography Online

Carved wooden walking stick, overall 35 1/2 in. lg., including 1 1/2 in. brass ferrule and silver collar under handle. Silver plate mounted along handle engraved: "Piece from the sternpost of the U.S. war steamer KEARSARGE which sunk the rebel war steamer ALABAMA. / Presented to / Capt. S. Samuels by Constructor Philip Hichborn U.S.N. / 1891." Upper shaft with carved floral, naval, and masonic motifs. Lower shaft with carved geometric repeating design.

The Kearsarge was decommissioned and recommissioned several times after returning from Civil War service, which famously included the sinking of the mighty commerce raider CSS Alabama of Cherbourg, France, 19 June 1864. Each time she was re-outfitted for service her cast-off wood was saved as a relic of the Civil War, and sometimes fashioned into canes and other items.

Hichborn, who would go on to become the Chief Constructor of the US Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1893, must have procured this wood while the Kearsarge was being serviced at Mare Island Navy Yard in San Francisco Bay in 1871-1872, following an assignment in the South Pacific and before one to China, Japan, and the Philippines, which included observation of the 1874 transit of Venus.

Though we cannot confirm with absolute certainty, it seems likely that the "Capt. S. Samuels" referred to on the engraved plate is Captain Samuel S. Samuels (1823-1908), the designer and commander of the famed clipper ship, the Dreadnought.